I had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Geiger, Founder and CEO of EIR Healthcare. Recognized healthcare industry expert and healthcare…

I had the pleasure of interviewing Grant Geiger, Founder and CEO of EIR Healthcare. Recognized healthcare industry expert and healthcare futurist. Dog lover, world traveler and National Park visitor

Thank you so much for doing this with us! What is your “backstory”?

I started right out of college working for Siemens, in their health services company. I worked with leading health systems across the US on clinical IT adoption and implementation. Never thought I was going to work in Healthcare and definitely never in construction or development. Despite all of that, I have always been interested in the healthcare industry. When I was in middle school my cousin broke his neck surfing in California and is a paraplegic. His experience (and our families) with the healthcare industry I believe was a key factor in my later involvement.

Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I applied and interviewed to join a healthcare incubator in NYC. During the application process the founder of the incubator pulled me aside and said “We love your company and this idea. Everyday we see 100 application for Healthcare IT products, the next app etc. That is what everyone is going after and 99% will fail. What we love about this is that is not digital, its analog and so simple yet disruptive. Even if you don’t join the incubator I want to help you and stay in touch.” That conversation was a major revelation for me and made me realize that we were definitely on to something.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We have two big differentiators. First we are disrupting the healthcare construction industry from the outside. We are not construction engineers, or architects or planners, we are biomedical and healthcare IT experts first and foremost. Second, we have a unique perspective having participating in the Healthcare IT adoption cycle of the past decade. We saw first hand the inadequacies of attempting to marry Health IT advancements with outdated infrastructure.

The story that I often give is of when I worked with a client in upstate NY to implement new Health IT software and workflows to help them achieve meaningful use adoption. After the client spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying the software and attempting to implement, they realized they needed to do a complete redesign their clinical and discharge worklfows due to poor facilities design and potentially putting their compliance with meaningful use at risk. This is what we are driving at and trying to improve. Harmony between Health IT and Facilities, connecting between what is physical and what is virtual in healthcare.

Are you working on any new or exciting projects now?

Without going beyond NDA‘s all I can say is that we are working with some clients to develop the future of central labs and life science R&D facilities which I believe will be truly revolutionary.

What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?

Hire for passion and talent and not just experience and when you do be sure to give your employees the tools, and more importantly the opportunities to thrive.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?

There are alot but have to start with my father. Not just because of being my father but also for pushing me to be here and also for starting this endeavor so that I could continue it. None of this would be here without him.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

By volunteering. This is something that was instilled in me at a young age. Either starting with the Ronald McDonald House at holidays serving food, packing lunches for underserved families with Philabundance or being a trustee for non profit education I’ve always set aside some of myself to help others.

Can you share the top five ways that technology is changing the experience of going to the doctor. (Please share a story or example for each.)

In general so much of the doctor patient experience is changing in two ways; it’s becoming decentralized and it’s becoming virtual.

a.Finding Doctors-Apps like ZocDoc’s have changed the doctor search experience. Previously you found your local primary doctor either thru personal connections or thru your insurer; now your next doctor is just a quick search away

b.Seeing Doctors- This has changed two fold. One is thru the advances of telehealth; apps like Teladoc allows patients to make a quicker, virtual connection with a doctor in most cases for simpler issues and receive a resolution or diagnosis quickly. Secondly, an old practice, house calls, have become envogue again and now for example a parent can pay a small fee and have a doctor visit their sick child at home instead of having to travel to the doctors office.

c.Paying for Doctor Visits- This might be the most nascent of the ways i’ve listed however with all the development in payment solutions — Square, Venmo, Apple Pay, etc I believe this area will also dramatically change. The copay, deductible insurance system will have to be revisited and companies like Oscar are working on that but the payment systems will dramatically change within the next decade.

d.Managing your own data- We are starting to see the second or perhaps third iteration of this. Formally the domain of companies like Epic and Cerner. Google and Microsoft also gave it a shot in the early 2000’s. Now we have Apple, Amazon and others but out of all the ways listed here I beleive this one has the greatest opportunity for improvement. There are still many legal and regulatory pieces that have to be solved but it will all be worth it if we can find a way to improve this and give control back to the patient.

e.Pharmacy/Prescription Drugs/Clinical Trials- Living in NYC you get to see a lot of health startups because of the population density it makes it a great trial ground for companies. Earlier on in my career I interviewed at Flatiron Health and was amazed and their novel approach to oncology drug trials. Finding ways to get the right patients in and participating in the right trials. This will continue to expand for all types of trial based care. Finally with Pharmacies, I believe the traditional brick and mortar pharmacy model for at least 80% of drugs will likely unrecognizable from what it is today, 10–15 years from now.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”?

Little bit of a yogi-ism: Whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right 🙂

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂

Might be a bit of cliche at this point but Jeff Bezos would be one at the top of my list. For several reasons but one, would like to have the hindsight discussion with him on his business and how he disrupted the publishing industry and then secondly to discuss the future. Amazon has accomplished a lot in such little time but what’s next?

Jilea Hemmings is a staunch believer in the power of entrepreneurship. A successful career revamping Fortune 500 companies was not enough for her entrepreneurial spirit, so Jilea began focusing her passion into her own projects—beginning with the formation of her own consulting agency, Eshe Consulting, and the development of the innovative meatless entrée line for kids, Greenie Tots.

Her passion for entrepreneurship and technology continues to flourish with the development of Leaf Tyme, a tech solution that connects dispensaries, brands, and medical clinics to customers within the Cannabis industry. With the Leaf Tyme App customers connect to licensed dispensaries and brands, learn about the cannabis laws in every state, and explore how Cannabis can help with common health conditions. Leaf Tyme supports business to business growth within the cannabis industry through streamlining the appointment setting process between brands and dispensaries.

Jilea is also an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is an influential speaker promoting the important role of women in technology. She believes that there should be no boundaries—neither class, race, nor gender—that should stand in the way of being able to use one’s purpose, passion, strengths, and talents to fuel entrepreneurial endeavors.

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